Cats enjoy playing and chasing an object that moves especially if the object is twitching or is erratically moving. So cat owners purchase a large number of toys to entertain their cats. Most toys are static objects that lose the interest of the cat after several minutes of play.
Cats are attracted to balls of twine, string and other similar small objects that are hit and bounced across the room with the cat's paws. Unfortunately, these objects end up underneath furniture, appliances, down basement stairs and generally lost in the recesses and corners of the home or apartment never to be seen again.
Therefore, prior art cat toys like U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,018 issued to Edling permit the toy member at the end of a string to move about as it batted by the cat in a generally erratic movement. The string is attached to the top of a flexible rod in a vertical position and mounted to a base member or platform by a coil spring. However, the cat learns that the flexible rod and string never changes that much from certain patterns of movement. The cat owner is able to remove the flexible rod with the toy member on the attached spring and create various manual movements with the cat. Although the manual mode provides a greater possibility of creative movement and fun for the cat owner, the busy schedules of most cat owners today often prevent such entertaining of their pets on a regular basis.
Also, many pet owners leave their cat for a day or so when traveling on business. During a period of absence, the cat owner can purchase from a pet store an automatic litter boxes and automatic feeders including water dispensers for their cat. But it is also important for the cat to remain amused and exercised during the owner's absence from the home. Cats have a tendency to get bored fast and a bored cat often gets into trouble by clawing things besides its claw post amongst other things.
Still other cat toys having an interesting cat movement are the type that hangs from door frames on a long string attached to the end of a pole or other arm extending horizontally from the hanger attached to the door frame. The problem with these cat toys is that the cat can scratch the door frame with its claw or the string that hangs some distance down on the frame of the door can catches on clothing or other articles that it comes into engagement causing problems.
Then there are prior art motor driven toys such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,725 issued to Boshears that has a generally hollow circular housing with a mouse attached to a rotating arm within the housing that has a number of ports on its outer perimeter for the cat to reach its paw within the hollow housing to bat the toy mouse. However, this motorized toy may end up with the cat injuring its paw if caught between the mouse and end of the opening as the mouse rotates around in a circle.
Therefore, a cat toy that includes a twitch and erratic movement of toy member like a ball at the end of a string or an elastic cord that is driven by an electronic control, which is programmable to entertain the cat whether the cat owner is home or gone away on a business trip but yet poses generally no potential injury threat to the cat and can be modified easily to change the teaser toy member attached to the end of the string or elastic cord. The present invention accomplishes these objectives and more.